C-PP begins work on new approach to Common Core

The Corning-Painted Post school district has begun the process of developing its own approach to teaching the Common Core.

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By Derrick Ekek@the-leader.com

The Dansville Online

By Derrick Ekek@the-leader.com

Posted Mar. 6, 2014 at 4:35 PM

By Derrick Ekek@the-leader.com
Posted Mar. 6, 2014 at 4:35 PM

The Corning-Painted Post school district has begun the process of developing its own approach to teaching the Common Core.

“We have created a framework for addressing curricular changes going forward which includes the use of multiple sources, along with more checks and balances,” said Superintendent Mike Ginalski. “We’ll be increasing the size of committees which actually do the work and will be starting a new committee made up of teachers, administrators and parents in an advisory role.”

The C-PP school board directed Ginalski in late January to move the district away from using the state-provided curriculum for teaching the Common Core, the EngageNY modules, which have been criticized by parents and teachers.

This week, Ginalski reported back to the school board to outline the process for assembling its own curriculum, which will involve committees reviewing a wide range of other sources of educational materials at both the elementary and secondary levels.

The initial goal is to have a new approach in place in time for the 2014-15 school year.

As the process moves along, C-PP will have to keep a wary eye on Albany, where both the Board of Regents and a panel formed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo are reviewing the state Education Department’s implementation of the Common Core. Also, the state Assembly voted this week to delay some aspects of the Common Core rollout, though it’s uncertain if the bill will be considered by the state Senate.

“The difficulty right now for all districts is that the changes from Albany are coming fast and furious and trying to figure where future legislation may land is going to make our work more difficult,” Ginalski said.

Also this week, the C-PP school board heard administrators’ plan to create a new schedule for C-PP’s elementary schools. Under the plan, students would arrive at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast, start class at 9 a.m., be dismissed at 3:25 p.m. and be out of the building by 3:35 p.m.

“We have an opportunity to create a new elementary schedule which puts all of our schools on the same schedule, increases instructional time by 25 minutes without drastically altering the start and end times and allows most of our Special Education students to have a full school day,” Ginalski said. “The next steps are going to be gathering feedback from parents and teachers. We will be setting up some parent nights in the near future and visiting with our teachers next week.”